He was first elected to Congress in 1978 at the age of 28, by defeating incumbent Ted Risenhoover. Synar's campaign pulled off an upset victory as they circulated copies of a Washington D.C. media report that said Risenhoover slept on a "heart-shaped waterbed," which did not play well with the voters back home in Oklahoma. In the Congress, he may be best known for his successful constitutional challenge to the Gramm-Rudman Act. In the 1986 Supreme Court decisionBowsher v. Synar, the Court struck down the law stating, in part, that the provision granting executive power to Comptroller GeneralCharles Arthur Bowsher, a legislative branch officer, did "violate the Constitution's command that Congress play no direct role in the execution of the laws." Synar was also an ardent and persistent foe of the tobacco industry. In 1989 Synar served as the lead prosecutor as Congress conducted an impeachment trial of then U.S. federal judgeAlcee Hastings, who was impeached on bribery charges and removed from the bench. Ironically, Hastings was later elected to the U.S. Congress from Florida, and was in line to chair the House Select Committee on Intelligence, but was passed over by SpeakerNancy Pelosi. In 1992, the HouseCommittee on Government Operations issued its 17th report, known colloquially as "the Synar Report", but formally as "Misplaced Trust: The Bureau of Indian Affairs Mismanagement of the Indian Trust Fund." Synar was Chairman of the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Subcommittee, which produced the report for the Committee on Government Operations at the direction of the 102nd Congress. The Synar Report led to the passage of the Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994, and helped to pave the way for the class action lawsuit, Cobell v. Babbitt, initiated in 1996. In 1994, Synar was narrowly defeated in a Democratic primary runoff election by Virgil Cooper, a retired high school principal. Though Cooper's campaign spent less than $20,000 itself, some money was spent by outside interests that were opposed to Synar, including the National Rifle Association, tobacco companies, and cattlemen. Cooper seized on Synar's connections with Japanese businesses with a bumper sticker slogan of "Sayonara Synar." Cooper won by just 2,609 votes out of 92,987 cast, a 51-49 margin. Cooper was subsequently defeated in the general election by Republican Tom Coburn by a 52-48 margin.
After Congress
After Congress, Synar served as the Chairman of the Campaign for America Project and of the National Bankruptcy Review Commission. He was also awarded the 1995 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, one of the nation's most prestigious honors for elected public servants. Synar died of a brain tumor on January 9, 1996, at the age of 45. The American College of Physicians offers a national public service award in honor of Rep. Synar's public efforts against tobacco smoking. His name is also attached to the Mike Synar Center at Northeastern State University in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley annually awards up to five in honor of Rep. Synar to distinguished graduate students who are writing their dissertations on an aspect of American politics.
